Scott Walker's TV Spot Front—Applauds White Pride Speech

White and Proud of It

Update: Call to Mark Neumann campaign for comment has not been returned.

With an assist from U.S. Senate candidate, Mark Neumann, a racist at a December event in Kenosha, Wisconsin gives a white pride tirade as Scott Walker's poster woman and other attendees applaud.

This is known is the political business as: An improper vetting. Or arguably, perhaps you have to appeal to racism to work in GOP circles now-a-days.

The U.S. military has more colorful terms for what the Scott Walker campaign has done in using right-wing activist, Kristi LaCroix as a front-woman extolling his virtues in Walker's misleading $ Multi-million TV spots.

The problem with using Ms. LaCroix concerned her attendance at, her own speech, and tacit approval of an event in Kenosha, Wisconsin on December 1, 2011 [audio below], where LaCroix received a hero's welcome as the next incarnation of Sarah Palin. Oops.

Paul I. Tascoupe reports that a subsequent speaker after LaCroix at the Pints and Politics event featured a racist Republican from the audience acclaiming white pride in a three-minute-long tirade. [The following piece has been edited slightly to give Mark Neumann his due. Apparently, Tommy Thompson had the good sense to skip this event.]

Instead of being booed out of the event by LaCroix and the other GOP attendees, the racist speaker received applause, including a note of encouragement and assistance by Wisconsin U.S. Senate candidate, Mark Neumann who helped the racist find the word, "profiling," followed seconds later by Mark Neumann's commitment to "never apologize for the United States of America for any reason ..." to loud applause from the assembled God-fearing, White Americans.

By Paul I. Tascoupe

The woman proclaimed her strong beliefs in “white pride;" said disparaging things about “the "blacks," and called anti-discrimination laws “disgusting” and “ridiculous.”

The proud, white woman continued her proclamations with lines such as:

• “I stood up and I said, ‘Look, I’m white and I’m proud of that.”,
• “I want you to understand that I am tired of the white male, the white conservative males, the white Christian conservative male being at the bottom of the heap.”
• “I’ve seen black groups, black caucus groups, black Congressional groups, black this black that.”

She even goes on to talk about how we were "attacked by Muslim terrorists." [Left unexplained was how this is connected to being "proud" of being "white."

Now I must again say this was - not- Kristi Lacroix's speech, however, not a single person in attendance stood up, gasped, or even attempted to stop this racial onslaught.

Instead the audience erupted in cheers after Neumann talked over the woman's tirade against the "blacks," with encouraging words about the USA. [Not sure how Neumann's direct follow-up was connected to being "proud" of being "white" either, but then again I'm no Republican.]

The following audio clip is from the event, please be warned, this clip has been rated racist.

WELS Church Censors Interview Between Accused Child Porn Possessor and Mark Neumann

Update: Child porn charges filed against WELS church official (MJS).

WELS church communications director, and advisor to the WELS Synodical Council and Conference of Presidents, Joel Hochmuth, has been arrested on child porn charges, WISN reported.

Via mal

This morning the WELS church scrubbed Hochmuth's interview with prominent WELS member, U.S. candidate Mark Neumann [and member of the WELS Kingdom Workers national Board of Directors (Spring 2011 Newsletter; p.5),] from the WELS site, where the two discussed the "Good Lord," "Christian principles," "abortion," and God's plans for Neumann in politics.

The interview page now reads: "You do not have sufficient privileges to view the requested page. If your user account has access to this page, please log in."

This message began appearing after the piece, WELS—Mark Neumann's Church—Comm Director Arrested on Child Porn Charges, was posted here this morning.

The claim of "sufficient privileges" contradicts the site's Technological page reading: "Sign In is not required for http://www.wels.net/, ... ."
 
WELS Board member, Neumann and whole of WELS leadership should condemn Hochmuth and Neumann should use his considerable influence with his church to ax this guy.

WELS should stop covering up, and start speaking up.

Do what Joe Paterno refused to do.
 
I don't care if it's Penn State football, the Catholic Church or WELS, preying on children is flat-out wrong, and silence is acceptance.

Contingency Plans

by folkbum

In case that whole "being governor" thing doesn't work out.


UPDATE:Ohboyohboyohboy!

The first rule of satire ...

by folkbum

... is that it has to be funny. Unfunny satire just makes you sound mean or stupid or both.

Take, for example, Deb Jordahl (please!). Not content to merely butcher the truth, she has to try her hand at teh funny. In a recent, misbegotten attempt at satire, Jordahl, a Scott Walker devotee, tries to get a larf at Mark Neumann's expense. "Neumann Endorses Barrett," blares the headline. The rest of it is just exactly as funny as the headline.

The second rule of satire is that it must have a significant grain of truth. "A Modest Proposal" is not successful because the idea of eating Irish children is a hoot by itself, but rather because the ruling class's neglect of the Irish working class was so bad that being dinner would be a step up from kids' real life. Jordahl violates this rule, as well.

The premise of her post is that Neumann's crashing of the state Democratic convention last weekend was not, as his earlier crashing of the Republicans' hoe-down was, a sad publicity stunt staged by an insurgent on the outs with the power-brokers in his own party. No, Neumann was there to show just how identical he is to Tom Barrett, the presumed* Democratic nominee. Yes, because Neumann, the anti-choice, anti-union, anti-gay rights, anti-public schools, anti-working class, anti-environment, endorsed by something called the "liberty council," religious extremist whacko might reasonably be mistaken for the Democrat in the race.

Jordahl's supposed grain of truth falls in this made-up quote from Neumann:

“My companies have made a killing off of President Obama’s stimulus package," [she has Neumann saying]. "Between the eight thousand dollar homeowner tax credit and the tax credits for solar water heaters, geothermal heat pumps and wind energy systems, the taxpayers have put hundreds of thousands into my homes. Heck, the taxpayers even paid for radio ads to promote my company.”

Neumann said Tom Barrett is the only other candidate in the race who believes that government should pick the winners and losers when it comes to helping businesses succeed.

The Onion, it ain't.

But the illogic and the fallacy behind the piece is worse than its unfunniness. If you click on the link at "made a killing," it takes you to a Dan Bice story (no, not that one! or that one! or that one! or even that one!) about the success of the homebuyer tax credit and how it helped as many as 16 or 17 Wisconsin families buy a home last year from one particular company. Sure, that company is part-owned by Mark Neumann; but it is hardly reasonable to suggest that anyone in government "picked" Neumann's company to be a "winner," when a) any homebuilder or real-estate firm was equally eligible to take advantage of the tax credits that in fact were given to homebuyers, not homebuilders, and 2) the current government would have no incentive whatsoever to make a credible Republican candidate for governor any more of a "winner."

But I did laugh out loud, once I clicked through and read the link. First, at the notion that Walker supporters are explicitly trashing a successful small-businessman, supposedly the backbone of their capitalist utopia and friend to the teapartier everywhere. Second, because the Bice story contains such nuggets as " 'So he's OK with the part that makes him money so he can run for office,' said Walker adviser R.J. Johnson," long before another Johnson, Ron, marshalled his earned millions to run for Senate as a Republican.

In the end, Jordhal violates the rules of satire so badly that they are at the emergency room filling out a police report as we speak. Give it a rest, Deb.

* presumed, because his most formidable likely opponent recently re-iterated his not-runningness ... but you never know

Mark Neumann, protecting us from health care

by folkbum

Thank goodness candidate Neumann is out there, pledging that, if elected governor of Wisconsin, he would "take steps to try to block a health care bill from taking effect" here. Because we need someone like Mark Neumann to make sure that none of these awful things come to pass here behind the Cheddar Curtain:

• barring insurance companies from discriminating against Wisconsinites with pre-existing conditions and from dropping customers who inconveniently get sick
• closing the Medicare Part D "donut hole" to save Wisconsin seniors money on prescription drugs
• opening an insurance exchange that would allow Wisconsin individuals to buy into group policies at lower rates
• providing subsidies for poor Wisconsin families to buy health insurance from Wisconsin insurance providers (this might create, you know, jobs or something, and Neumann probably doesn't want that to happen)
• offering help to Wisconsin's small businesses to make it easier for them to offer their employees health care coverage
• removing "lifetime" and limiting "annual" coverage limits that drive some Wisconsinites who have insurance to declare bankruptcy anyway
• building community medical centers in regions of Wisconsin that have shortages of primary care providers

If only all of Wisconsin's candidates had the fortitude to stand up for the status quo, where thousands die and millions more go uncared for because of this country's unique health care model!

Mark Neumann Site Is Up, And It's Good

by Michael Leon

The Mark Neumann for Governor committee filed its GAB-1 Campaign Registration Statement with the Government Accountability Board last week.

But a modern campaign is a campaign only when it gets its website up. Mark Neumann's site is up and it is not too shabby, though it's still in development.

Good colors, not text-heavy, and easy-to-find information.

Constructive suggestions, Mr. Neumann.

The upper-right and bottom quadrants of a given web page (in green in the above graphic) should be comprised of low-priority information. EyeTrack studies show readers’ eyes don't see these quadrants well. So whatever info you put on these spots ought to be low-priority. Your upper-right is a high-priority “Donate” button. Move this over to the left an inch or so.

Also, an industry standard is that hyperlinks should maintain the page a reader is using and open to a new, seperate page.

So your linked headline, for example, "Press Release: Mark Neumann Enters 2010 Gubernatorial Race," should open to a new window; it does not now. Easy fix. The current code for the linked headline is (in part):

-- a href="http://markforgov.com/pg/blog/MarkNeumann/read/53/press-release-mark-neumann-enters-2010-gubernatorial-race"> Press Release: Mark Neumann Enters 2010 Gubernatorial Race --

Simply place the following code target="_blank" between the " and > charactersin the code (that are bolded in above graf and in red) and the reader will open up a new window.

Like as follows (try it and hit this following link): Press Release: Mark Neumann Enters 2010 Gubernatorial Race. ... Whallah, a new window.

Mr. Neumann, I want you to win the GOP nomination for governor and then I sincerely want the best man to win the general election. I disagree with you on much policy; but you are an earnest man and such men don't grow on trees.

Lots of more ideas. Contact me if you are interested on my working on your primary as a consultant at: maleon@charter.net.

Welcome Mike Gousha Viewers!

by folkbum

(Updated: If you missed the show, our segment is online here.)

I'm quite certain that tens of thousands of people all across the state are waking up this morning and watching "UpFront with Mike Gousha" and, impressed by my madd debating skillz, are immediately firing up teh great gizoogle and finding this here blog.

Owen and I had about 4 seconds to debate about a million things, so I thought I would add a few things here that I didn't get to say.

I spent the most time boning up on the sate budget and was able to get the fewest of my talking points in about that topic. In fact, the more I read up on the budget, the more impressed I was with it.

Owen's a bit lucky that Republican talking points on the budget are easily reducible to the lazy conservative dog whistles: increased spending, benefits for gays, illegal immigrants, blahdy blah blah blah.

The truth about the budget is a bit more wonky and a bit more important to the actual real lives of people across the state. For example, the budget was done on time this year for the first time since 1977. In these difficult economic times--indeed, in worsening economic times, as the revenue news was revised downward several times since the beginning of the year--Democrats were able to come together and get a budget done on time.

It's also a budget that does not raise the sales tax, income tax (for 99% of people), property tax, or gas tax. State workers and state agencies took a big hit so that education and shared revenue could be spared the worst. The spending from General Purpose Revenue--the big pot of tax dollars the state collects from you and me--is lower, in real dollars, in actual total dollars spent, in this budget than in the previous one, but 2.5%. The total increase in spending (yes, $61b for 09-11 is larger than the $58b for 07-09) is almost entirely accounted for by federal stimulus dollars, not tax increases--and don't let the Republicans tell you any differently. The Legislative Fiscal Bureau estimated that the median home's property taxes would increase a grand total of just $94 if schools and municipalities taxed to the max under revenue limits.

Wonky, yes. But also worth being proud of--and not something that petty little issues like gay-bashing and immigrant-bashing should be allowed to overcome.

As for Jim Doyle, and whether he's running for re-election, I will reiterate what I said on the show: No one has told me any differently. However, Doyle has indeed been invisible lately, not even taking much credit for the budget. Some Democrats have expressed quite a bit of displeasure over Doyle's relative absence lately, and they have a legitimate beef. However, if you remember four years ago, Doyle was perfectly happy just to go about doing his job and letting his opponents beat each other up. I firmly believe the Republican primary will get ugly, soon, and I will be happy to watch that happen. So will Jim Doyle.

UPDATED to add something else: One other thing I wanted to say on the show but that I didn't is that the single toughest opponent Jim Doyle will face next year is the economy. It doesn't matter which Republican's name is on the ballot; if the economy is still in the toilet, Doyle's re-election is less secure.

ALSO: I'm watching Mark Neumann on the program this morning, and he's taking credit for the Clinton economy of the 1990s that he voted against consistently. Ugh.

Even Lt. Gov. Lawton beats the pants off of Walker, Neumann

by folkbum

There is no serious indication that Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle is not running for re-election. There's also not any serious indication that he is, for that matter; I think we have all just been assuming that he will.

Research 2000, for Daily Kos (so, salt grains perhaps necessary), not only polled the Doyle match-ups against his likeliest opponents (Scott Walker, Tosa Ranger and Mark (Nickname Needed) Neumann--not to mention fantasy candidate Tommy! Thompson); they also polled Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton:

Barbara Lawton (D) 44
Scott Walker (R)   35
Undecided          21

Barbara Lawton (D) 43
Mark Neumann (R)   35
Undecided          22

Barbara Lawton (D) 44
Tommy Thompson (R) 46
Undecided          10

I have to say, that's not bad for someone that the rightie bloggers insist is the least popular woman in state politics!

The full breakdown, including Senate numbers and fav/unfav for everybody polled, is here, and Lawton again proves remarkably popular for someone with a relatively low profile. If she could boost her numbers just among Democrats, for example, she would be almost as popular as Doyle, and more popular than Neumann. (She's already more popular than Walker, with a 35% favorability rating, over Walker's 33%.)

No one, of course, is more popular than Tommy!, but that's probably because absence has made our hearts fonder. And, after all, he was in charge during the 1990s boom time, and we'd give anything to return to that boom.

But the real story is Walker and Neumann, with their low scores, and low numbers against both Doyle and Lawton. And, yes, both guys hold Doyle and Lawton under 50%, which is generally a sign of weakness in an incumbent; and, yes, Walker still has 51% of the people in the state who have no opinion of him, so he has room to grow.

However, this poll confirms what even the right-tackular MacGuyver Institute poll suggested a couple of months ago: Doyle, though not the most popular guy in what should be a horrible set of circumstances for any sitting governor, is starting from relative strength against two weak opponents. The polling really does look like it did four years ago, and Doyle coasted to victory in 2006. Republicans need either better candidates or better lines of attack that anything they've used so far.

Three posts I'm not writing while I'm laptopless

by folkbum

1. The two most important MPS elections you don't know are happening. One, over the next week, MTEA (the teachers union) members will be electing a new president. Mild-mannered, two-term president Dennis Oulahan is wrapping up his term, and the two candidates vying to replace him offer two very different potential leadership styles. The firebrand, the likely winner, will not offer any kind of conciliation toward the board and the administration. Speaking of the board: Two, the board will be electing a new president, too, when the new members are sworn in later this spring. Current president Peter Blewett has been a student-focused leader putting the quality of the schools first. There are other strong personalities on the board that might push things in a different direction. How these two votes end up will tell us a lot about the next two years at MPS.

2. Walker-Neumann Cage Match. My esteemed liberal blogging colleagues are pretty gleeful at the grudge match growing among the right over the gubernatorial primary shaping up between Scott Walker and Mark Neumann. I seem to recall that Republicans were all quite giddy at the prospect of a bloody, protracted fight between Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton--and look how that turned out.

3. Torture. Murder is a pretty effective way to get rid of the neighbors who honk their horns at all hours of the night, but that doesn't make it moral. That whole discussion is just depressing.

Also: Don't forget your chance to see me and my pals in the Portage Road Songwriters Guild this Saturday May 2 at the Coffee House: 8 PM, $5. And you'll also note the solo show I have booked at the FIXX on July 24.